鹤顶兰 he ding lan

Limodorum tancarvilleae L’Héritier, Sert. Angl. 28. 1789; Bletia tancarvilleae (L’Héritier) R. Brown; Phaius grandifolius Loureiro; P. grandifolius var. superbus Houtte; P. sinensis Rolfe; P. tancarvilleae var. superbus (Houtte) S. Y. Hu.

Plants (60-)100-200 cm tall. Pseudobulb conic, ovoid, or subglobose, (2.5-)6-8 × 3-6 cm. Leaves 2-6, on upper part of pseudobulb; blade green, elliptic-lanceolate, 30-100 × 8-20 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate. Inflorescences arising from base of pseudobulb or axils of leaves, exceeding height of leaves, 50-200 cm, loosely 10-25-flowered, glabrous; floral bracts usually caducous, lanceolate, 4-5.5 × ca. 1.8 cm, glabrous. Flowers nutant, widely opening, large, 7-12.5 cm in diam.; pedicel and ovary 2.5-4.5 cm, glabrous; sepals and petals whitish outside, reddish brown or brown inside. Sepals similar, oblong-lanceolate, 4-6.5 × 1-1.5 cm, glabrous, apex acuminate to acute. Petals lanceolate-oblong, 4-6.5 × 0.8-1.5 cm, apex acuminate to acute; lip white toward base, pink or red-pink toward entrance with white stripes on inside, 3.5-6 × 2-5 cm, broadly rhombic-ovate, shallowly 3-lobed; lateral lobes short, margin undulate, apex rounded; mid-lobe orbicular or transversely oblong, margin slightly undulate, apex truncate and emarginate or rounded and mucronulate; disk usually with 2 or 3 ridges, densely puberulent; spur hooked, whitish yellow, narrowly cylindric, 0.6-1 × 0.1-0.2 cm, apex unequally 2-lobed or unlobed. Column white, 2-2.2 cm, puberulent ventrally; rostellum subligulate. Fl. Mar-Jun. 2n = 38, 44 + 4B, 46, 48, 52.

Shaded and damp places in forests, at forest margins, along valleys, or by streamsides; 700-1800 m. Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan, SE Xizang, Yunnan [widely distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia and Oceania].